March 2007 - Arts Journal.com/postclassic/

...Roll Over, Claude Vivier... His work for hire is rather amazingly sophisticated, and you can hear his imaginative commercials for Nike, Smirnoff, Fruit Loops (on his website), ... I first became aware of him via a torrential sound continuum called ‘Seven Years ‘on the 1989 Bang on a Can marathon, and and I've been trying to figure him out ever since. Because his music - wild, noisy, intense, relentlessly high-energy - is nearly opposite in style to most of the music I like, but it is nothing at all like most modernist music characterized by those qualities, and I always have to admire fanaticism. Most of his pieces are what he calls "concertos," by which he means pieces for solo instrument accompanied/obliterated by tape or electronic soundfile layered with from 200 to 400 tracks. The noise periodically parts for pop references and quotations: lightly-altered pop songs, the scherzo from Bruckner's Eighth, Brazilian pop, heavy metal, all cascading by like someone trying to find his favorite radio station during a hurricane. .he had to alter some of the quotations to avoid copyright infringement. He claims that he replaced the vocal parts with vocalists singing software manuals in Portugese, but Mike's humor is so dry that it's hard to discern where reality ends and satire begins - probably somewhere within his music.It turns out, though, that beneath all the wildness runs a detailed sense of proportion and structure as obsessive as that of the Berg Chamber Concerto or the middle studies of Nancarrow. Got That Crazy Latin/Metal Feelin' is based on 49 tonalities that alternately rise and descend by thirds.., the piece ascends to chord 7, returns to 1, slogs its way up to 14, returns to 1, and so on until it finally climbs the mountain of 49. The central tonality is the E power chord of the guitar solo, and you can sometimes hear the music dramatically return to it via a circle of fourths - though Maguire's moments of repose and respite start about where Mahler's climaxes end. Short History of Lounge, its title notwithstanding, is - at least on paper - a conventional three-movement concerto form, though enlivened by background quotations and sections that greatly accelerate and decelerate. The finale runs through an incredible gradual deceleration from quarter note = 900 to quarter note = 4. The magnitude of such gestures leaves you exhausted. In retrospect, though, I should have figured that his sense of form was knitted together by obsessively detailed structure, because it would be extremely difficult to make music of such rich complexity without a plan to generate all the various moments: the musical analogue of Bruno's Theater of memory. .I can see why Zorn likes the music - perhaps a rare point at which our tastes overlap. Maguire's not completely isolated in Canadian music, for his friend Paul Dolden also makes take pieces of mammothly superimposed hundreds of tracks, and has gained a little more attention for doing so. But with his peculiar blend of postmodern style juxtapositions, pop appropriations, and fanatical intellectual structure, I think Maguire's the most original Canadian composer since R. Murray Schafer - and I don't know Schafer's music well enough to be certain the qualifier is necessary.

March 2007 - Arts Journal.com

heh. quarter note = 900. my middle school students will love this, since they're always cranking up the tempo to 300+..

March 2007 - Arts Journal.com

zowie! that "Alert! Alert!" sequence at about -1:45 to go had me apple-tabbing frantically to find which program was going nuts...

March 2007 - Arts Journal.com

I don't know--Schafer's pretty crazy (in a good way). But this stuff is great. I can't wait for the CD.

March 2007 - nonpopmusic.com

Wow! I'm absolutely loving MC Maguire. Such an imagination. Something new around every corner. What a creative genius.

May 2007 Arts Journal.com/Post-Classic--USA

…resplendently recorded.…Compared to Maguire, Berg was a doodling improviser…. these are stunningly complex works, built along the lines of astonishingly intricate tempo and tonal systems that govern most of the details.…….. fragments of pop song weave in and out, and rock-style guitar riffs, and computer-voice messages, and everything but samples of the kitchen sink.……..it's one of the most astonishing CDs I've ever heard, not intended for the faint-hearted, and if you listen often and closely, you'll hear tempo and collage effects you've never heard before.

May 2007 Arts Journal.com

...Listening to MC Maguire's stuff is awesome, but it is so dense and complex that I'll have to pick up a CD to really get a better grasp of all that is going on...some of the more original music I've heard recently...

May 2007 Arts Journal.com

.....Finally it's here. Awesome. I'm completely ready to sit back, relax and have my ears blown away... again. I It is strange to hear so many contexts and sound worlds colliding and interchanging at such lightning speed. Definitely shouldn't drink too much coffee before consuming!

May 2007 Arts Journal.com

....certainly is very original and engaging music. I think it does share some aspects of the Paul Dolden / John Oswald / Alex Trebek general Canuck aesthetic, but without a doubt, it is it's own living thing, with a more genuine electicism than Dolden, more complexity than Oswald, and more erudition than Trebek.

May 2007 Arts Journal.com

...Internet criticism works! This announcement was the first thing I read in quite a while that made me rush out and get the disc - and I wasn't disappointed.

May 2007 Arts Journal.com

The Maguire CD is amazing...

The recording is rich... it sculpts the contours of music... it is very sensual... funny... witty... There is a constant challenging dialog between music and the listener.

"Got that Crazy..." is terribly strong. It is impressive, monumental like a cranky black diamond ....always surprising and leaving us without respite. We are gasping, always forced to discover a new breach, crossing or outlet.... It 's constant elevation.

In the Short Story, we are smack in the middle of our own dramatic fight for life... perturbed, shaken, put in a whirl of violence and joy...totally reeled and dazed. But suddenly, a wit stings and we are surprised to smile, sharing the Maguire irony... Then, strangely, we find that Short Story is intimate and even tender because of the secrets that it reveals...

June 2007 Squid's Ear/ Squidco—USA

…the Village Voice proclaimed him 'the most irritating and spellbinding composer since Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach." The latter is an apt comparison, as Maguire tends to work in a melange of styles that blends and mashes compositional elements in coherent but bewildering ways….. the results are enjoyable, if a bit mind-boggling.…….Genres are absorbed, chewed and regurgitated at an impressive rate; it would be difficult to characterize the work in any particular way, except to say that it embraces whatever it encounters, is sometimes frenetic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, and often resolves to something beautiful.……. Maguire understands the need for dynamics, and gives the listener a chance to catch his breath before diving into another intriguing and engrossing section.…… Maguire's studio skills are impressive, and the recording benefits from a variety of aural tricks.……A massive and amazing modern compositional work.

July 2007-Sonotone/24Hours--Switzerland

… It starts like the Apocalypse, with enormous waves of ear-splitting chaos. From the incredible entanglement of this maelstrom, an overwhelming enchantment emerges. grinds together rock, jazz, blues, a Bruckner symphony, minimalism, and hundreds of fragments borrowed from the chronology of all music. .As the Master of Ceremonies, in this staggering and excessive ritual of black incantation, the Canadian has a ridiculously long CV in all that is very classical: studying ,degrees, awards and offical commissions.....nothing to prepare the listener for this madcap music, kinetic and energetic like no other. Because of the strength of its’ ideas, it destroys all the accepted ideas about Aesthetics, Beauty in Art, and other hubris using the same old terminology. Timid ears, stay away!

August 2007 Wire Magazine-- UK

...achieves the kind of maddening detail which can barely be grasped even after repeated listenings …..incredibly complex and elaborate musical structures....Maguire’s obvious irreverence makes this academic difficulty of the work less forbidding.

Sept. 2007 Beautiful Feet Blog

I see a strong parallel between Nancarrow pieces and a recent Tzadik release by MC Maguire, Meta- Conspiracy.. I listened to small excerpts, then bought the CD when it came out a few months ago. When I listen to the whole CD, Meta-Conspiracy is just as busy as Nancarrow pieces… A Short History of Lounge for piano and computer every bit the wild ride …..

August 2007 Classical-Drone Blog

I see a strong parallel between Nancarrow pieces and a recent Tzadik release by MC Maguire, Meta- Conspiracy.. I listened to small excerpts, then bought the CD when it came out a few months ago. When I listen to the whole CD, Meta-Conspiracy is just as busy as Nancarrow pieces… A Short History of Lounge for piano and computer every bit the wild ride …..

Sept. 2007 Whole Note Magazine --Canada

Editor’s Choice ---The music of Toronto based composer MC Maguire, on his disc ‘Meta-Conspiracy’ starts with full throttle and almost never lets up. There are brief moments of respite, but the overall impression is one of manic activity. After a cryptic warning on the computer voice of a Mac error message about an overload of midi information, we are off and running full speed ahead. A Short History of Lounge is a 25 minute quasi-concerto in which local piano wizard David Swan is pitted against a computer which provides a virtual orchestra of synthetic sounds and samples. Rumba rhythms, pop and classical quotations layered upon layer which ritard and accelerate until a final tempo of a quarter note =900(!) is achieved. Got that Crazy, Latin/Metal Feelin’ provides electric guitatist John Gzowski with a similar backdrop, a”wall of sound” such as Phil Spector could only have imagined in his wildest dreams. With John Zorn as executive producer, the disc was released as part of the Composer Series on the Tzadik Label. The notes describe the music as” confrontational, extreme and packed with drama and excitement”. I couldn’t say it any better.

Sept. 2007 Exclaim Magazine Canada

It begins as an accelerating, percussion-happy absorption of musical themes, both naturalistic and digitised, heroically accompanied by Swan’s piano. The piece slows to regroup in several spots over its duration before swelling again into massed but always musical layers, not unlike a thick sandwich of Zappa’s mid-’80s Synclavier experiments ..it somewhat resembles a more frenetic, serial version of label boss John Zorn’s Naked City band pieces. That is good fun for those who like music that resembles rollercoasters.....

Dec. 2007 Circuit Music Magazine (France/Quebec)

…in the case of M.C. Maguire, we can bluntly speak about violence, violence like ‘ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”….the composer explains his music as a quirky synthesis of musical styles---what he does not say is they all play simultaneously!! ..combining the energy of rock with the sound textures of Xenakis. However if the first listening might trigger a headache, the subsequent one allows us to pass through the fog covering the music. The piano brightens. We cross a symphony orchestra to what seems like some Bruckner fragment. After a while we can distinguish the mind-blowing design of the structure assembled from the multitude of tracks where diverse electronic sounds/samples are woven. Finally, the sensation of listening simultaneously to 12 radio stations diminishes and allows the courageous listener to appreciate the composer’s multi-layered vision.

Dec. 2007 LOW MP3 DOWNLOAD .com

Meta Conspiracy is the most important Avant Garde Release of 2007-everyone must hear it!

Dec. 2007 Apple Itunes .com

Phenomenal. Nothing else like it.*****A constantly morphing collage of, well everything. If this doesn’t help you make sense of the modern world, nothing will.

Dec. 2007 http://syro0.twoday.net (Germany)

BEST OF 2007, Top 10

10.	Radiohead: In Rainbows
9.	Natasha Bedingfield: N. B.
8.	Feist: The Reminder
7.	Patti Smith: Twelve
6.	Björk: Volta
5.	M.C. Maguire: Meta-Conspiracy two totally crazy compositions with dozens of tracks for CPU accompanied by live instruments piano and electric guitar
4.	Rene Jacobs: Don Giovanni
3.	Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson sings Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs
2.	Lucinda Williams
1.	Lil Wayne

Dec. 2007 http://www.cowboysfringants.com (France)

Top Ten 2007

1.	To Live and Shave in L.A.: Les Tricoteuses
2.	Nondor Nevaï: <> exécuté par _ ("Undrskor")
3.	The Flying Luttenbachers: Incarcerated by Abstraction
4.	Nondor Nevaï: Wooden Machine Music/2001
5.	Foetus: Vein
6.	Haswell/Hecker: Blackest Ever Black
7.	Ergo Phizmiz: Nose points in different directions
8.	RLW avec rm74: Pirouetten
9.	M.C. Maguire: Meta-Conspiracy
10 .	To Live and Shave in L.A. 2: The 300 Dollar Silk Shirt

Dec. 2007 http://www.argumentmachine.com (USA)

DJ Clems top 10 2007

10.	Sleeytime Gorilla In Glorious Times
9.	Nels Clines Singers Draw Breath
8.	MIA Kala:
7.	People Misbegotten Man
6.	Blotted Science The Machinations of Dimentia
5.	. Pamella Kurstin Thinking out loud
4.	Keith Rowe The Room
3.	Behold …the Arctopus! Skullgrid:
2.	Nels Vline and Elliott Sharp Duo Milano
1.	Hans Fjellestad Snails R Sexy

DJ Clems top pick for 2007
MC Maguire Meta-Conspiracy:
This CD satisfies mine craving for information overload. Two long concertos--one for electric guitar, one for piano--that replace the backing 'orchestra' with densely layered samples. Think 'Plunderphonics' ramped up to the nth degree, then add virtuosic notated scores for guitar and piano. Unlike Plunderphonics, Maguire warps the sampled material to the unrecognizable point, stretching pitches and shifting tempi until a wash of semi-discernable sound is created, enveloping (and sometimes obscuring) the solo passages. At the end of Maguire's pieces, thine brain just kind of...hums. DO WANT.

June 2008 All Music Guide .com

Lively, Aggressive, Passionate, Ambitious, Searching, Dramatic, Theatrical, Eccentric, Uncompromising Elaborate .Literate
MC Maguire has been commissioned by dance companies to compose music, and in the case of Meta-Conspiracy, it could have easily been done for experimental films. What he creates on this daring recording can easily be pegged 21st century contemporary electronic music, but it is so much more than that. Moreover, Maguire's concept is to toss all elements in a blender set on high speed, and listen to the different styles and genres playfully bounce off each other knowing they will not necessarily mix or match and turn into brown goop. The music, which at times incorporates up to 400 separate tracks from a CPU through layering, sonic sampling and the usage of live improvising instrumentalists, is a fascinating study on how to make new music through digital techniques, written scores and the wide world of sound. Two nearly half-hour compositions are included, and the dizzying heights the music achieves is astounding by any criteria. "A Short History Of Lounge" -- not all that short -- explores a legitimate jazz stance glued to a faux- concerto/quasi-rondo, taking normal circumstance and day-to-day living, stacking it on high in mass plus- plus-plus algebraic run-on sentences, and using pianist David Swan as the control factor. A spoken word warning and industrial sounds inform the pianist's role as an informant, not a prevaricator. The music is dense and requires close listening as you hear this epic of variations and ethnomusicology in super high definition, drama and duress. A blues harmonica, symphonic notions, a vocal chorus, and a calmed piano repast enter the fray briefly. It's like Frederic Rzewski meets Steve Reich meets The Residents on acid playing laptops. The concept is loosely based on "A Brief History Of The Universe." The second piece "Got That Crazy Latin/Metal Feeling" is based on a 49 chord harmonic progression that moves backward, then forward, although it is not that readily discernable. Mathematics, Brazilian pop, perhaps Captain Beefheart's jazzier side, Claude Debussy, and the influence of Euro-electro pioneer Michael Schenker of The Scorpions and UFO are acknowledged. The dynamic range goes up and down with death rock and metal sounds of electric guitarist John Gzowski as the focal point. The music, as peculiar as it might seem, is never crowded or constipated. At times symphonic, manic and accented by a trio of vocalists including Maguire, whether noodling, rigid or plain ridiculous, the music has a certain warm substance within its obvious schizophrenia. The medication has been taken, it is absorbed and efficient, yet there's an underlying turbulence that cannot be denied. This is a wonderful project, hopefully spawning other similar efforts, and marks Maguire as a unique figure in any genre of contemporary modern music you choose.

Sammara's "Can't Move"

Download.com July 2007

The music itself is beautiful and entrancing, her voice is playfully haunting, and some of the lyrics, well...I gotta say I laughed my head off. In a GOOD way. "Nothing's Changed" and "Doormat" had me listening to certain parts again just to make sure I heard them right. Great stuff, here!

iacmusic.com March 2006

great track and influences, amazing vocals, loved the strength in the voice.. can't wait to hear more tracks

iacmusic.com Feb 2006

I like the lyrics on this twisted, yet st8-forward song. kaic feb 2006

Songramp.com Dec 2005

Interesting blend of vocal and instrumentation. I think the whole effect works very well.

Songramp.com Dec 2005

Reallyverygood track, rich in pathos and warmth, fine effects, great voice...

Download.com Dec 2005

Incredible! - really lovely vocal style on these tracks with fresh clean and bright - I guess it won't be long before we hear these guys in a stadium near you...

Audiostreet.com Nov 2005

A fascinating combination of electronic instruments & female voices.

Audiostreet.com Nov 2005

An eclectic experimental mix but with great melodies. Too often when people use electronics or be experimental, the melody suffers but not here. I'm looking forward to hearing more music from Sammara...

Beluga Records May 2004

It's good work for sure - the vocals are very high quality, the production is interesting and the songs are good.

Download.com May 2004

An exquisite spiritual approach and vision seem to underpin this entire record. South Asian singer-song writer Sammara is the cup of tea for any Bjork fan. The sounds of ritualistic soundscapes and tribal percussion will take you away to a misty, dreamy place.

Audiostreet.com April 2005

These songs have a cool, lost, airy feel to them. I love the way you can just roll around and get lost and feel loved at the same time.

To listen to a song from this just click on the title or the icon to the right.

To download a song from this list -

• WINDOWS - Right click on the title or the icon to the right, and select "Save Target As" from the menu.
• MAC - Right click on the title or the icon to the right, and select "download linked file" from the menu.

To listen to a song from this just click on the title or the icon to the right.

To download a song from this list -

• WINDOWS - Right click on the title or the icon to the right, and select "Save Target As" from the menu.
• MAC - Right click on the title or the icon to the right, and select "download linked file" from the menu.

10:44 - Haute couture Yogi-Mullah-Pope grants plenary, purgatorial indulgences to States of Punjab, Palestine and Pacifica.

8:58 - Vince Foster (with Hillary Clinton’s love tomes, Col. Sanders, 3 Elvis impersonators and one so-so Saddam double) is alive and living the life of Riley underneath the pyramids in the galley of a black helicopter.

11:29 - Zimbabwe Black ops eat crow trying to cross-reference the Mayan Calendar, Egyptian Mythology, the Bohemian Grove and the number of internet hits on hot, wet Asian babes.

Nephilius(Norway) (CDREVIEW) June 2001
fortunecity.com/tinpan/bongos/560/

This is really something quite unique, samplers and tape loops with special sounds delivered through 7 long tracks. Some of the tracks are building themselves up to a real climax with an almost insane intensity. It's hard to put a label tag to this music but I guess you could call it speed-ambience combined with some trance psychedelia.

Don't file this under easy listening. But if you can afford the time (74 minutes) and the neighbours can stand the volume it demands, Back-Engineering a Cloned Hoola-Hoop rewards close attention. Spin-happy M.C. Maguire's mix-master approach sometimes resembles the '80's electronica of Holger Czukay and Jah Wobble, especially since he is just as likely to borrow from African and Asian sources as from the usual rock'n'roll well. There's definitely something Zappa in there, somewhere, and also a touch of Negitivland in the sheer density of the sampling and his propensity to chop it up in abrupt ways.

But Maguire's sense of form, which has him returning to hypnotically building beats and almost ethereal vocal choruses(even if there not made from 'real' vocals) finally stamps the project with an original, sometimes even transcendent vision. The disc is divided into seven long cuts, each bearing a faux-tableau title,,such as "Russian Mob Extorts Asian Triad to Muscle Columbian Cartel to lean on Aliens to put Y2K jelly on my butt(sans anal-probe).org". It's not clear whether Maguire's verbiage... is part of some grand joke, but the music itself is quite serious, without any hints at pompousness.

Vancouver's M.C. Maguire deftly blends a slew of varying genres into somewhat cohesive musical formats - - very dense collages. Yet, the chaos begins to make sense on repeat listens and is rooted in rhythm.

Electronica, Ambient, BreakbeatPost-modern synthesis combined with acres of culturally rich soundscapes and samples. African hymns, funky breaks, helicoptering echos....it's all there.